Interessenvertretung auf Medienmärkten aus Akteursperspektive

Given the rising importance of political advocacy in the media sector, both with respect to national and transnational (EU) media policy making, this article focuses on media lobbyists as a specific group of media policy actors. Based on existing research addressing lobbying in policy making in general, the article first discusses in how far media lobbyists are characterized by distinct attributes (e.?g., due to the societal function of media and the actors’ privileged access to the public). Empirically, the paper relies on structured interviews with nine German media lobbyists examining their professional identity and working practices. Results confirm findings from studies on lobbyists in general (e.?g., with respect to necessary professional skills, experts’ career and academic background) whereby media lobbyists’ privileged access to the public cannot be confirmed. Overall, this study’s findings shed light on a so far neglected group of actors in media policy making.     

A network economic game theory model of a service-oriented internet with choices and quality competition

This paper develops a new dynamic network economic model of Cournot-Nash competition for a service-oriented Internet in the case of service differentiation and quality competition. Each service provider seeks to maximize its own profit by determining its service volumes and service quality. We utilize variational inequality theory for the formulation of the governing Nash equilibrium as well as for the computational approach. We then construct the projected dynamical systems model, which provides a continuous-time evolution of the service providers service volumes and service quality levels, and whose set of stationary points coincides with the set of solutions to the variational inequality problem. We recall stability analysis results using a monotonicity approach and construct a discrete-time version of the continuous-time adjustment process, which yields an algorithm, with closed form expressions at each iteration. The algorithm is then utilized to compute the solutions to several numerical examples. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted.     

Approval of shareholder-sponsored proposals: Evidence from Canada

Little is known about shareholder voting at firms incorporated outside of the United States. Proposals sponsored at such firms and the voting patterns and factors associated with these proposals should conceivably be similar to those in the U.S. if the legal and governance structures of the countries are similar. We examine 264 shareholder proposals sponsored at Canadian firms between 2001 and 2005 in order to determine if differences created by the Canadian governance system, being more voluntary than that of the U.S. system, lead to differences in shareholder voting. We find many similarities between voting at the Canadian firms and those found in the literature for their U.S. counterparts, including some types of frequently submitted proposals and factors impacting the level of shareholder approval. However, unlike the concurrent literature on U.S. firms, we find very few majority approved proposals and a much lower overall level of affirmative voting returns.     

Effect of information formats on information services: analysis of four selected agricultural commodities in the USA

We analyze sources of information in agricultural markets to understand patterns of demand for decision support services and the division of labor in the supply of these services. Information formatting—qualitative variation that determines accessibility and relevance of information in specific contexts—prohibits universal access to informational content. Information formats give rise to both transaction costs and complementarities reflected in patterns of information exchange in commodity systems. Controlling for actors' structural roles and levels of education, we develop a hedonic model of information demand such that actors seek information that is formatted to meet their needs and capabilities. Employing survey data, we explain elements of observed patterns of information exchange in four commodity systems in the USA. Results point to opportunities to expand our understanding of socioeconomic processes underlying production and consumption of decision support.     

Applying public participation GIS (PPGIS) to inform and manage visitor conflict along multi-use trails

Managing visitor conflict is an important task in protected areas. This study used public participation GIS (PPGIS) mapping and a visitor survey to research conflicts between mountain bikers and horse riders, and other groups frequenting trails for tourism and recreation in national parks in northern Sydney (Australia). The goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of the PPGIS for determining conflict locations, and to integrate stated reasons and conflict resolution measures in a model. The survey showed that 42% of mountain bikers and 69% of horse riders had experienced conflicts, with each other, motorbike riders, walkers/hikers and dog walkers. PPGIS effectively mapped concurrent usage intensity to predict potential conflict locations over a reasonably large study area thereby identifying trails of the greatest concern. PPGIS also offered high-quality GIS visualisation options, and the novelty of the PPGIS increased participant engagement. We evaluated PPGIS compared to questionnaire-based surveying, direct visitor observations, GPS tracking, traffic counters and cameras. Because visitor conflict occurs within a spatial context, conflict management will require greater spatial knowledge of visitor activity, which can be obtained through the innovative PPGIS mapping. A conflict model is presented that integrates this study's empirical findings on conflict reasons and resolutions with existing conflict theory.     

Weak monotonicity and Bayes–Nash incentive compatibility

An allocation rule is called Bayes–Nash incentive compatible, if there exists a payment rule, such that truthful reports of agents' types form a Bayes–Nash equilibrium in the direct revelation mechanism consisting of the allocation rule and the payment rule. This paper provides a characterization of Bayes–Nash incentive compatible allocation rules in social choice settings where agents have multi-dimensional types, quasi-linear utility functions and interdependent valuations. The characterization is derived by constructing complete directed graphs on agents' type spaces with cost of manipulation as lengths of edges. Weak monotonicity of the allocation rule corresponds to the condition that all 2-cycles in these graphs have non-negative length. For the case that type spaces are convex and the valuation for each outcome is a linear function in the agent's type, we show that weak monotonicity of the allocation rule together with an integrability condition is a necessary and sufficient condition for Bayes–Nash incentive compatibility.     

EDUCATIONAL EXPANSION: THE WORMS IN THE APPLE

Expansion of higher education can undermine rather than enhance the value of education for low income families. Less well qualified children of higher income families are the main beneficiaries of the expansion and the value of the qualifications of those who do not participate in higher education can be undermined. The most obvious practical policy that would expand educational opportunity for all would be to treat all adult students equally and give further education institutions and universities comparable, as well as greater, freedom from government control.     

A Schumpeterian North–South Growth Model of Trade and Wage Inequality*

The paper presents a dynamic general‐equilibrium model of interindustry North–South trade that is used to analyze the effects of trade liberalization on the Northern wage distribution. Both countries have a low‐tech sector where consumer goods of constant quality are produced by use of unskilled labor. The North also has a high‐tech sector that employs skilled labor and features a quality‐ladder model structure with endogenous growth. Both innovation and skill acquisition rates are endogenously determined. In a balanced trade equilibrium, it is found that Southern‐originated (Northern‐originated) trade liberalization leads to an increase (decrease) in Northern wage inequality both between skilled and unskilled workers and within the group of skilled workers. The endogenous change in the Southern terms of trade determines the direction of change in unskilled wages in both the North and the South.